When Topher (now 11) was 5 or 6 his older cousin Shaina began taking violin lessons. She graciously agreed to play for our family on Christmas Eve. As she played Topher leaned over and whispered, "Mom, why did Uncle Brent and Aunt JeNeale buy Shaina such a squeaky violin?"
Fast forward 5 or 6 years and now we find Topher, already a promising young pianist playing tenor sax with the elementary school band. I am astonished at how quickly he is learning to play this instrument and in addition, the sheer volume of the practice sessions has cleared our home of common household pests! Sometimes when he is practicing he makes extraordinary high-pitched sounds in the middle of a well-known melody such as, say, Good King Wenceslas. These jarring nuances send him and our whole family into fits of irresponsible, irrepressible, irreproachable laughter.
On Friday night we attended the Rindge Memorial School concert. Ronan and the other 3rd graders sang some wonderful Christmas songs (I know it's January, I'll explain in a future post) and Topher and his band played. The band consists of 2 alto saxaphones and Topher's tenor sax, 2 drummers, 1 trombone, 1 trumpet, and 700 flutes. When the band began to play I had an epiphany. Do you ever wonder about the origin of certain words, words like waft, seizure, or for that matter, epiphany? Who makes these words up? Who says them the first time and then who uses them over and over until they finally achieve dictionary status? In that 10 minutes of elementary musicality I pictured another parent much like myself sitting at her child's first band concert. Now I know how the word cacophony was born.
P.S. Can anyone tell me why all those parents bought their children such squeaky instruments?
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- Lauralee
- I am Lauralee Burton Hill - imperfect but working on it. I am happy.
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6 comments:
Oh my goodness, you made me laugh out loud this morning! I remember when Topher asked that question about Shaina's violin and remember thinking, "Just you wait!" I love your musings on the word "cacophony," and after attending COUNTLESS band and choir concerts over the years (with more to go un. . .I mean. . .fortunately) I am sure you are correct.
I'll be smiling in years to come as you sit through more concerts, and I really hope that one day I'll get to hear your kids perform.
Fabulous post. I love the way you write. This is hilarious. How wonderful that your children have a love for music too! I think you might be right on about the origins of cacophony.
We too endured the jr high band concert last month. Cacophony is definitely the right word- but I don't know how it came about. I heard on the radio a new word was added to the dictionary this year... "Meh." meaning noncommital, whatever.
What you will find, is that through the years, as Topher improves musically, it will become harder and harder to enjoy the "cacophony" of the younger ones as they start their squeaky journey into the world of music. Let him know that the saxophone is by far the coolest instrument to play. Thanks for the new posts. They are fabulous.
I'm pretty sure that the origin of futile came from a man trying to write something after reading something written by his wife!
Wow, La! Thanks! Great post! I wish we had a video of Drew from the the concert repeatedly looking at his mouthpiece, wondering where all of the wierd noises were coming from.
(By the way, I had read your post last night when you asked me, I just didn't remember having read it. which I know I shouldn't admit to. I should have just lied and said I hadn't read it. I will plead temporary exhaustion and throw myself upon the mercy of the court.)
Yes, the squeaky instrument sounds are going to last for some time. Grandad Smith is so pleased that Topher is playing the sax. His comment was "I played the alto sax and they are my favorite instrument". The concerts never end and I am so grateful for that. I'll be waiting to hear him perform.
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